Nuclear power plant (stock image)
Nuclear power plant (stock image)Thinkstock

A bomb dropped during the Second World War was found Thursday on the premises of a nuclear power plant crippled by a tsunami in 2011.

Officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) discovered the three-foot bomb dropped by American bombers during World War II at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility.

The Fukushima plant was devastated by a massive tsunami in March 2011 following a 9.1 magnitude earthquake just off the coast of northern Japan.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused heavy damage to the power plant, leading to the release of radioactive material from three of the plant's reactor units.

Since the earthquake the power plant has remained inactive, with cleanup crews operating for years to remove radioactive material and pave the way for plant workers to begin the lengthy decommissioning process of the facility’s reactors.

After the discovery of the World War II bomb, TEPCO officials alerted local police, who dispatched a bomb squad to handle the unexploded device, the Jiji Press reported.